I'd say this is cleverly done, sure, but it's a massive loss for quality public discourse.

They even say it in the video: "We changed the conversation from 'Taxes Taxes Taxes' to 'Library Library Library."

Wouldn't it be better that people have a two sided conversation where the relative merits of raising taxes to fund the local library be discussed? Pros and cons? Costs and benefits?

Instead they tricked people into making a red-herring choice against burning books by using an inflammatory technique which polarized the issue over something totally unrelated. Personally, I like libraries, but I could imagine reasons why people would not want to raise taxes to support something which might not be very useful (poorly run, bad location, etc). Or maybe the town was running low on cash and needed to shut down the library while they repaired the local infrastructure, boost revenue, and then work on getting the lib. going again.

I'm not saying these ARE reasons (I don't know the details), I'm just saying it's possible, but of course nobody would talk about those sort of things because you're either a book burner or not and that's all people would pay attention to.

It's not like the opposition wanted to ban literacy. Huge distraction.

I just realized that the entire Star Trek world (from the series) is contained within the Milky Way Galaxy. In Voyager, when the crew is thrown from the Alpha quadrant to the Delta quadrant, they are thrown from one end of the Milky Way to the other. Travelling at around 900x the speed of light it would take them 70 years to get back home. To think that there are probably hundreds of billions of galaxies in the observable universe is just unfathomable. Basically, even the most fanciful futuristic stories still limit the reach of humanity to some fraction of one one-hundred-billionth of the observable universe.

We are less significant to the universe than a single electron is to the earth.

I just realized that the entire Star Trek world (from the series) is contained within the Milky Way Galaxy. In Voyager, when the crew is thrown from the Alpha quadrant to the Delta quadrant, they are thrown from one end of the Milky Way to the other. Travelling at around 900x the speed of light it would take them 70 years to get back home. To think that there are probably hundreds of billions of galaxies in the observable universe is just unfathomable. Basically, even the most fanciful futuristic stories still limit the reach of humanity to some fraction of one one-hundred-billionth of the observable universe.

We less significant to the universe than a single electron is to the earth.

For all that we have done, as a civilization, as individuals, the universe is not stable, and nor is any single thing within it. Stars consume themselves, the universe itself rushes apart, and we ourselves are composed of matter in constant flux. Colonies of cells in temporary alliance, replicating and decaying and housed within, an incandescent cloud of electrical impulses. This is reality, this is self knowledge, and the perception of it will, of course, make you dizzy.